It is desirable to adhesively apply reflective sheeting material to the exterior of a traffic marker, such as a tubular marker, in order to enhance the visibility of the traffic marker at night or other times of poor visibility.
Application of the reflective material to the tubular traffic markers is very time consuming. One method requires the manual application of the adhesive-backed reflective sheeting material to the tubular marker. The reflective sheeting is cut by hand, and is then manually positioned and applied to the tubular marker. Due to the amount of manual labor required, this is a very slow process.
Another method of applying a reflective material to a traffic marker involves enclosing a piece of reflective sheeting in a sonic welded envelope comprising a clear plastic material. The envelope is formed into a sleeve. The sleeve is slipped onto a heated tubular marker with a significant amount of force, since the sleeve must be forced over the protrusions or dividers on the top section of the tubular markers. Once the sleeve is in position on the tubular marker, the sleeve is riveted in place. Again, this method requires significant amounts of labor, since it takes approximately two minutes to apply the reflective material sleeve to each tubular marker. In addition, this method does not work well since the reflective material does not work effectively when the sleeve is wet. This process also tends to accelerate color loss.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,047,107 issued to Keller et al. discloses a method and apparatus for applying a reflective sleeve to a traffic cone. Reflective sheeting is manually cut, and then manually positioned on a platform. The liner is manually removed from the reflective sheeting material. The cone is manually positioned on a mandrel on the apparatus. The mandrel and platform are brought into proximity with the other. The mandrel automatically winds the reflective material onto the cone, and the cone is then manually removed from the apparatus.